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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 2015472" data-attributes="member: 63">The world evolves around us and through us.  Our interests change, and what interests others changes us.  Every industry, social group, and sub-culture has a continual edge of newness, and while we can comment on the change of those around us -- hip-hop music is getting a bit more blended with other styles; people are becoming comfortable with the interconnectedness the web provides; Japanese horror remakes are big in the U.S. -- it can be harder for us to see the changes we are making.So, what's up in fantasy, nowadays?I just finished reading Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson, and those of you who also have read it can probably guess why I'm interested in this question.  Gibson's a sharp guy, and it seems that he does a lot of thinking on how the changes in the world are contributing to our anxieties.  Me, though, I want to know how the changes in fantasy are affecting our pleasure and entertainment.  What do we like that's new, and why do we like it?  I mean really deep down, why?  What about these new things are more entertaining than the old things?I like that the RPG world seems to be mirroring the computer world.  D20 is Windows, GURPS is maybe Mac, and HERO might be Linux.  It makes me more comfortable thinking that games will keep drifting more and more into the lives of non-gamers.  Games aren't arcane texts anymore, generally -- they're designed to be quick and fun, the way any game should be.I like that video games are kicking the butt of tabletop RPGs financially, but that I know tabletop games are much more fun.  It's the difference between watching the Superbowl and playing football with your friends, or the difference between buying a CD and having an impromptu musical number with two guys you meet randomly in the French Quarter of New Orleans.  Computer games are for the folks who are really talented, folks who are good at entertaining lots of us at once, folks who will some day soon hopefully include me.  But tabletop games are a hobby, something uniquely personal.I like that Constantine is coming out soon, and that I get to go to an early showing in 16 hours.  It's another indicator that everybody is starting to be willing to watch fantasy movies, to enjoy fantasy stories.Why is that, though?  The 80s had grit and violence the likes of Blade Runner and Aliens.  The 90s had simultaneously flagrant paranoia and defiant optimism in the form of the X-Files.  The new decade is just weird, though.  People seem to have given up on distrusting the government -- we know they're doing bad things, but we figure there's no other way to do it -- but we don't think the world is a bleak place.  We actually seem to find it funny.  People seem to want to be entertained more than ever before.Does that disturb anyone else?  Fantasy used to be the province of those who were downtrodden by bullies in high school, or of older men for whom the slaying of monsters gave a measure of control that the depressing late 70s and early 80s made hard to get.  But now, everybody likes fantasy.  Is it that we want to be heroic and epic?  (I recently read an article telling Christian men to stop worrying about careers, and to start living their lives with daring goals.  Having a family shouldn't be tedium; it should be something to test yourself against, to prove your manliness.  Be individuals and have goals you can pursue to make yourself a hero in the eyes of your family.  Interesting, no?)Or is it that our lives suck?  Maybe they're one in the same.I recall a TV show on the Discovery Channel back in the early 90s called "Beyond 2000," and I watched it religiously.  For decades, people had been expecting the future to arrive, to bring in its waves of flying cars, its space travel, its bold new frontiers.  They had allowed the future to keep getting put off, certain that eventually it would come.  But then we had the millennium, and we decided we were tired of waiting.  The year 2000 was supposed to be the future.  We were in the future, and our dreams had not been fulfilled.So we turn to other dreams.  We try to let others entertain us with fantasy, adventure, and magic.I'm a writer, and I feel that my calling is to entertain people.  But I don't want to just feed what I perceive to be this growing sense of directionlessness.  What can I write in the realm of fantasy that is entertaining -- that makes the world seem appropriately meaningful -- without simply creating escapism?  The Hero's Journey is classic, but how do I make its core story resonate with readers today?What's up with fantasy, nowadays?  What do we want?</blockquote>

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